Show KET CONSIDERS IT FUN TO DRAW PICTURES FOR US ALL A gray haired little boy drawing pictures and having a whale of a good time doing it that s M G kettner whose cartoons are appearing in ahe ames independent for ket as he is familiarly known in the newspaper fraternity Is the sort of person who answers perfectly the familiar description he Is years young rather than years old you dont have to come into contact with this artist whose personality radiates a youthfulness that bells the actual years of his age to realize that you see it in his work A native of chicago ket studied art under the famous newspaper artist frank holmes and although he was the youngest in his class at art school his talent was so marked that at the M G KETTNER age of sixteen he was taken on the staff of the chicago american this was followed by a career on the achl cago inter ocean and then the newspaper syndicates claimed him and made his work known throughout the united states so much tor the practical experience which gave him the necessary technique for cartooning cartoon ing for after all technique Is only a part of cartooning cartoon ing much more important is what the artist puts into his cartoons and by that criterion ket takes his place among the leaders working under the handicap of being barred from covering political or controversial subjects because his work goes into newspapers as varied in their political affiliations as they are other allegiances he still turns out cartoons which are forceful and attention compelling commentaries on current american affairs and especially effective because they re good natured comments on the fads and foibles of humankind there s no sting or bitterness in bets manner of driving home his point and there s nothing in it that will hurt anybody s feelings or offend good taste in fact humanness Is the outstanding characteristic of his work the people in his cartoons are human beings and recognize yourself and your friends in nearly all of them when he portrays an incident along the concrete you chuckle because that recalls a similar experience you had when he records a pet peeve you re grateful to him for expressing so graphically how you feel about some of the annoyances of everyday life and when he tells of an event to the lives of little men the years roll back and you re a boy again with your boyish joys and sorrows and mainly joys far kettner Is one of the outstanding delineators of youthful america although bom and reared in the city his favorite aunt was a farmers wife get him to talking about her and you immediately think of alleys poem out to aid aunt marys and he had his full share of experiences in the regions of the ol 01 hole and kindred delights master of kindly humor that he Is and keen in his appreciation of the ridiculous not all of bets work deals with humorous subjects the basis of real humor is a sensitiveness to the more serious side of life and kettner has that sensitiveness and a genius for expressing it in terms of real beauty some of his cartoons for such occasions as memorial day mothers day thanksgiving and armistice day are classic in reverent and restrained treatment of deeply emotional subjects among the many cartoonists in america today there are some whose work has more appeal to men newspaper readers others who are the favorites of women readers and still others who are especially popular with children but few if any have the versatility which makes them popular with all the family in our opinion and we believe that our readers who have been enjoying Kett ners cartoons in this newspaper will agree with us has it and that Is why his work Is such an unfailing source of enjoyment to millions of newspaper readers |